Josiah Schut: Dairy Farmer of the Mountains

A while ago I had a great conversation with a friend of mine.  Despite a few technical difficulties, I had the chance to learn more about his life on the family farm in British Columbia.  Josiah Schut is my good friend, my most challenging academic competitor in college, prankster extraordinaire, and much more.  Today I'd like to introduce you to Josiah, the dairy farmer.

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Who is Josiah?

Josiah is twenty-one years old and operates the family dairy farm in Salmon Arm, B.C. with his dad and the rest of the family.  He grew up on that farm and returned to it after completing three years of education at Olds College (keep an eye out for a future blog to find out about Josiah's time in college).  While Josiah and his siblings had their own chores to do growing up on the farm, he says, "we maybe weren't quite as involved [in the farm] right from birth, maybe as some farm kids were, but definitely expected to help with chores.  We had our daily thing with the calves and we were definitely allowed and expected to get out and help, but we weren't necessarily driving silage truck from the time we were seven years old, you know?"  As a boy, Josiah was also involved in 4-H for 4 years in his teens, which he really enjoyed.

Dairy Farming in British Columbia

It's time to introduce you, the readers, to the farm we have been referencing.  The farm, which is about 350 acres in size, is located in a valley between two mountains, which as Josiah says, "that's the case for most farmers in B.C."  The Salmon River Runs through the property, which allows the Schut family to irrigate their crops.  Josiah and his younger brother, Micah, run the farm with their dad, and their mom and sister, Nicola also help out. The farm also employs another four full-time (or close to full-time) employees.  They run about 200 cows through the milking parlor every day.  Currently, there are about 450 animals on the farm, including all of the calves and heifers.

Josiah's favourite part of working on the farm is the variety of tasks that he encounters.  He enjoys the fact that "you can work in the fields with the tractors, you can fix the equipment, you work with the cows."  However, he did pin down working with the cows as one of his favourite tasks: "I like working with the cows a lot and that kind of ends up being the thing that I do the most, is the breeding, and the animal health end of things.  And yeah, just moving them and organizing which groups they're in and stuff."

As a young farmer, Josiah acknowledges that he does face some challenges, although none could be identified as a big challenge.  Mainly, he would like the opportunity to experience more and learn how to do more tasks on the farm.  However, with the farm being fairly large, he often ends up doing jobs that are more labour intensive, which he already knows how to do and for which he doesn't need training.  He does not get to experience the business end of the farm, since his dad takes care of the business decisions, phone calls, financials, etc.  There are several opportunities that Josiah has as a young farmer, though.  He likes being able to look what might be improved and having the ability to use technology to work towards improvements.

I was curious to know whether there are any major differences between agriculture in Alberta and agriculture in B.C.  Who better to ask than someone who grew up in B.C. and attended school in Alberta?  Josiah tells me, "it's a different world between the two provinces."  He says that there is a lot more land in Alberta, but that it is generally poorer quality that the land in B.C. (judging by organic matter content).  British Columbian farmers typically have more access to irrigation, as well, so although Alberta farms are larger in land base, the soil quality is a major benefit for those in B.C.  Josiah also tells me that Alberta has a culture that "is very much more so geared towards farming...B.C. is definitely more of an urban-minded province, if you will."  He points to political issues to prove his point, saying that politicians in Alberta are more prone to think of how decisions impact farmers than politicians in B.C. are.

Looking to the Future

As with all family farms, the desires and plans of all siblings must be considered when discussions of the future arise.  While Josiah has finished his schooling and is working on the farm full-time, Micah is still finishing up his education at Olds College and will join Josiah in working on the farm as soon as he is done.  Nicola is currently studying to be an animal health technician at a Thompson Rivers University in B.C.  At the moment, it is unclear whether she will have a larger part in the farm once she returns, although she has expressed interest in the farm.

Josiah's goal for the future is to always continue learning, and to keep from getting stuck in a routine on the farm.  He would like to expose himself to situations where he needs to make new decisions, in an effort to keep learning how best to run the farm.  He says, "if I were to get stuck in a rut...on our farm, I would potentially be interested in maybe going to work for a different farm where I'd be given different responsibilities, just so that I'm always exposed to growing myself as a young farmer."  As for the immediate future, Josiah will be travelling to Indonesia this coming January to participate in YWAM for 6 months, as he sees the opportunity to grow personally in this adventure.  The experience "will take [him] away from the farm for a bit, but once [he's] back from that, it will be back to full-time farming."

Quick Facts

I thought it would be fun to ask Josiah a few rapid fire questions to get his perspective on some highly important topics.  Here are his answers:

• Josiah's favourite breed of dairy cow: Holsteins
• The province with the best scenery: B.C.
• Josiah's least favourite chore: Working with cows that have metritis (a really stinky infection) because, "farming's a smelly job, but certain smells are just not pleasant, regardless."
• Josiah's coolest farm-related injury*: He got kicked in the chest by a cow and it left a hoof-shaped mark on his chest. 
• In Josiah's humble opinion, the best farm ever is his: "I like mine the best.  'Cause it's mine."
• The one thing Josiah wants people to know:  "Farmers care. We care about our animals.  We care about producing good quality food for the people."

*Please note that no farmer likes to get hurt and we do our best to avoid injury.  However, every farmer has a few interesting work wounds with cautionary tales behind them.  Josiah has several interesting injury stories about both himself and his brother.  Unfortunately, most of them are not farm-related, so they didn't make it into this blog.